Feminism's Quest for Common Desires

2010 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 263-269 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lori J. Marso
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
Difficult Conversations ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Feminist Community ◽  
New Generation

One attraction of “choice” feminism has been its refusal to judge the diverse desires of women. Yet for feminism to retain its political vision as a quest for social justice, we must continue difficult conversations concerning how acting on our individual desires impacts the lives of others. In this essay, I argue that feminists can acknowledge women's diverse desires while forging a meaningful feminist community. I make this argument by considering feminism's relationship to time, and particularly how women's diverse desires are read in each moment in time. If we abandon the generational model, wherein each new generation of feminists improves upon the last, for a genealogical perspective where women recognize our feminist origins and empathize with the diverse struggles of other women, we might reaffirm social justice for the community as central to feminist politics. To articulate this possibility, I turn to the work of Simone de Beauvoir to explain her discovery of how her embodiment as a woman and her relationship to femininity becomes a way of grounding a feminist politics. Recognizing the “demands of femininity” in other women's lives allows us to affirm feminist community while retaining the capacity to make judgments that realize social justice as a feminist goal.

Feminist Theory

2021 ◽  
pp. 488-503
Author(s):  
Jean Mills
Keyword(s):  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Political Thought ◽  
Life Writing ◽  
The Body ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
Feminist Thought ◽  
Feminist Discourse ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Feminist Community ◽  
Critical Responses

This chapter examines Virginia Woolf’s foundational role in the development of feminist theory, placing her theoretical positions on women’s lives and life-writing, privacy, the body, and self-expression in dialogue with a diverse and actively changing continuum of feminist thought. Focusing on the return of rage to the forefront of feminist discourse and social media’s effect upon feminist politics, the chapter chronicles the changing critical responses to Woolf’s feminisms, in relation to her positions on feminist identities and feminist community. The chapter also investigates the ways in which women of colour feminists disclosed Woolf’s racialized self and racist thinking to assess the place of Woolf’s feminism in contemporary political thought. From issues seeking to reconcile and value difference and diversity with the uses of ambivalence and calls for unity and integration, the chapter places the concepts and vocabulary of feminist theory within the context of Virginia Woolf’s work and example.

'We construct our worlds within these four walls': urban Indian women's leisure constructions and social justice.

2021 ◽  
pp. 78-89
Author(s):  
Vinathe Sharma-Brymer
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Geographical Location ◽  
Urban Life ◽  
Sociocultural Factors ◽  
Gender Inequalities ◽  
Human Capabilities ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Financial Income

Abstract Equality for all genders, reflecting that gender is not a simple binary, is about individuals being able to lead their everyday lives autonomously, with their own freedom to maximize their quality of life. Indian women living an urban life appear to have access to individual and collective leisure opportunities. However, their lived experience of indoor and outdoor leisure are heterogeneous and complex. A range of sociocultural, economic and religious factors affect women's leisure choices and, especially, the freedom to enjoy outdoor leisure. Examining the complexities embedded in women's constructions and experiences of outdoor leisure may help in addressing gender inequalities at another level. This requires understanding the multi-layered complexities of Indian women's lives that are intersected by caste, class, education, financial income, geographical location and invisible sociocultural factors. Indian women's outdoor leisure experiences are deeply linked to rights, social justice, human capabilities and quality of life. In that regard, there are both similarities and differences with issues associated with women's leisure in India and Western societies. A collective effort to further research that adopts an intersectionality approach may illuminate invisible issues that women from heterogeneous contexts experience. While needed for women, such an approach may be beneficial for all genders and society in general.

“You’ve got to do something radical”

2021 ◽  
pp. 112-132
Author(s):  
Michael A. Messner
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Critical Analysis ◽  
The State ◽  
The Future ◽  
Intergenerational Dialogue ◽  
New Generation

The final chapter touches back on the stories of veteran activists Wendy Barranco, Phoenix Johnson, Monique Salhab, Monisha Ríos, Stephen Funk, and Brittany Ramos DeBarros to consider the future of Veterans For Peace and About Face within the larger field of national and international movements for peace and social justice. The chapter touches on the state of the current intergenerational dialogue taking place in these organizations, and ends with a critical analysis of how the intersectional praxis of a new generation of progressive activists holds the promise of bridging the struggle against militarism and war with other large issues of the day, including climate change, global pandemics, and the continuing violence of economic, racial, gender, and sexual injustice.

Our Actions, Our Stories: A Readers Theater

2020 ◽  
pp. 194084472093904
Author(s):  
Leslie Rebecca Bloom ◽  
Bonnie Breyer ◽  
Chrissy Hoffman ◽  
Jocelyn Izaguirre-Zavala ◽  
Walter Jones ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Experiential Learning ◽  
Gender Studies ◽  
Qualitative Interviews ◽  
Women's And Gender Studies ◽  
Readers Theater ◽  
And Gender ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Women’S And Gender Studies

This article presents the script of Our Actions, Our Stories: A Readers Theater that was researched, written, and presented by students in a women’s and gender studies (WGS) class called “Action: Intersections and Coalitions.” Based on qualitative interviews, the script illustrates six respondents’ perspectives on their activism and explores their backgrounds and intersectional identities in relation to these. The readers theater explores how activism and identity intersect and what that means for those engaged in activism. The article concludes with a discussion about the meanings that doing this project in a feminist experiential learning course had for the WGS students involved and how such experiences contribute to growing a much-needed new generation of qualitative researchers dedicated to social justice.

scholarly journals Michèle Roberts: Female Genius and the Theology of an English Novelist

Text Matters ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 61-75
Author(s):  
Alison Jasper
Keyword(s):  
Christian Theology ◽  
Historical Survey ◽  
Simone De Beauvoir ◽  
Female Desire ◽  
Disciplinary Boundaries ◽  
Interdisciplinary Field ◽  
Second Sex ◽  
Women's Lives ◽  
Problematic Issue

Since Simone de Beauvoir published The Second Sex in 1949, feminist analysis has tended to assume that the conditions of male normativity—reducing woman to the merely excluded "Other" of man—holds true in the experience of all women, not the least, women in the context of Christian praxis and theology. Beauvoir's powerful analysis—showing us how problematic it is to establish a position outside patriarchy's dominance of our conceptual fields—has helped to explain the resilience of sexism and forms of male violence that continue to diminish and destroy women's lives because they cannot be seen as questionable. It has also, I would argue, had the unintended consequence of intensifying the sense of limitation, so that it becomes problematic to account for the work and lives of effective, innovative and responsible women in these contexts. In order to address this problematic issue, I use the life and work of novelist Michèle Roberts, as a case study in female genius within an interdisciplinary field, in order to acknowledge the conditions that have limited a singular woman's literary and theological aspirations but also to claim that she is able to give voice to something creative of her own. The key concept of female genius within this project draws on Julia Kristeva's notion of being a subject without implicitly excluding embodiment and female desire as in normative male theology, or in notions of genius derived from Romanticism. Roberts' work as a writer qualifies her as female genius in so far as it challenges aspects of traditional Christianity, bringing to birth new relationships between theological themes and scriptural narratives without excluding her singular female desires and pleasures as a writer. This paper—as part of a more inclusive, historical survey of the work of women writers crossing the disciplinary boundaries between literature and Christian theology over the last several centuries also asks whether, in order to do proper justice to the real and proven limitations imposed on countless women in these fields across global and historical contexts, we need, at the same time, to reduce the Christian tradition to something that is always antithetical or for which women can take absolutely no credit or bear no responsibility.

Feminist Identity, Feminist Politics

2016 ◽  
Vol 59 (4) ◽  
pp. 855-872 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maura Kelly ◽  
Gordon Gauchat
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
General Public ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Sociodemographic Factors ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Feminist Identity ◽  
Feminist Politics ◽  
Multiple Dimensions ◽  
And Gender

Feminist scholars and activists have endorsed a broad and intersectional political agenda that addresses multiple dimensions of inequality, such as gender, sexuality, race/ethnicity, and class. We examine whether or not this perspective is also held by self-identified feminists in the general public. Drawing on public opinion polls from 2007 to 2009, we assess self-identified feminists’ attitudes toward a range of social policies. We find that after controlling for sociodemographic factors and political ideology, feminist identity is associated with progressive attitudes on policies related to gender and sexuality (e.g., abortion) as well as policies related to other social justice issues (e.g., immigration, health care). We also find some interactions between feminist identity and gender, age, education, and political ideology, suggesting some heterogeneity in feminists’ political attitudes. Overall, these findings suggest that feminists in the general public support an intersectional social justice agenda rather than a narrow focus on gender issues.

scholarly journals Using Feminist Theory and Social Justice Pedagogy to Educate a New Generation of Precautionary Principle Chemists

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Grace A Lasker ◽  
Nancy J Simcox
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Feminist Theory ◽  
Precautionary Principle ◽  
Science Classroom ◽  
Change Agents ◽  
Collaborative Partnerships ◽  
Chemistry Curriculum ◽  
Social Justice Pedagogy ◽  
New Generation ◽  
Human Health Effects

Students in the science classroom learn that science makes right, which devalues (whether inadvertently or very purposefully) other non-scientific areas of study and largely works against ideas of collectivism and community especially as science “rises to the top” in collaborative partnerships and interdisciplinary research and service. Applying feminist theory and social justice pedagogy within the chemistry classroom can help focus the student’s learning experiences away from hierarchical outcomes that perpetuate discriminatory practices toward change agency and the pursuit of equity, especially in regard to the design of safer chemicals. Most would agree that it is not ethically acceptable to continue to design and produce chemicals that cause adverse human health effects and environmental pollution; however, changes in the chemistry classroom to redirect this outcome has been slow. Emphasis on designing safer chemicals driven by the precautionary principle can advance the role of students and teachers as change agents in their communities.. When considering feminist theory and social justice pedagogy in the chemistry classroom, classrooms become inclusive and learning outcomes shift toward focusing on how to reduce health disparities due to chemical exposures and how to interact with systems of domination and decision making in the workplace and beyond. New chemistry curriculum is needed in these areas to help prepare a new generation of “precautionary principle chemists” who will advocate for all of our communities.

Power and Place

2020 ◽  
pp. 186-233
Author(s):  
Erika Hanna
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Documentary Photography ◽  
Irish Society ◽  
The People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Societal Problems ◽  
New Generation ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship

Chapter 6 surveys the history of documentary photography in twentieth-century Ireland. In particular, it examines the emergence of a new generation of documentary photographers and their role in debates about the nature of Irish society from the 1970s to the 1990s. Self-consciously radical, these photographers aimed to use their work to expose injustice and ‘reveal’ the hidden side of Irish life. In particular, the chapter focuses on the career of three photographers: Derek Speirs, Joanne O’Brien, and Frankie Quinn. It uses close readings of the work of these photographers, contemporaneous photography magazines, coupled with the extensive use of oral histories to explore the impact of documentary photography on Ireland in the later twentieth century. In their depiction of poverty as both visceral and uncomfortable, they challenged the traditional iconography of Ireland which had aestheticized or even eulogized these themes. Moreover, these photographers were often self-conscious and reflective regarding the relationship between themselves and the people—often in difficult circumstances—whom they portrayed. Nevertheless, they were often forced to make difficult choices about the depiction of poverty, violence, and injustice which attempted to expose societal problems without being voyeuristic. An exploration of choices they made regarding how they engaged with their subjects, what they photographed, and where they published provides a way of exploring the visual economies of social justice in later twentieth-century Ireland.

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